In addition to its difficulty for its high and remote location at 5100 meters above the sea level and the requirements of training and equipment, this confluence is one of the most beautiful and symbolic because it’s located on the body of the snowcap mountain called Apu Pariaqaqa, which is full of mythology, mystery and a special Andean cosmovision.

After months of evaluation and weeks of training, two mountain lovers left Lima the night of 28 June 2013 to Jauja city (3352 m.a.s.l.). Next morning, at 6:00 am, we hired a taxi to approach us to the mountains, up to 4720 m.a.s.l., the starting point of our 6 km trek. Late in the afternoon, after walking through one of the most beautiful and well preserved sectors of the “QhapaqÑan”, or “Inca trail” as it is widely known, we arrived at our basecamp (4400 m.a.s.l.) one hundred meters east of the Atarhuay lagoon.

Next day, the approach to the confluence required us to walk approximately 4 km and ascent 700 meters, of which 2.5 kilometers were moraines of different types. We left our basecamp at 8:00 am with a lovely sun, but it later switched to hail, subtle rain and sun again on and on.

At the beginning, we walked above the Atarhuay and Verdecocha lagoons until we reached the first moraine of little stones. Soon would come others moraines of huge rocks, whose several tons made us think they were solid and stable… however at the most slight touch they moved as if they were alive, as if we would be stepping on the back of a delicate monster. Almost at noon, still one kilometer and a half was missing when the hail became stronger.

We stopped to reconsider the facts: If a hailstorm unleash we would have a lot of trouble to go down, but we were precisely at the highest point of a mountainside and from this point an horizontal walk would lead us directly to the glacier… we estimated we could go forward at least one kilometer towards what looked like a channel between a huge stable moraine and the glacier tongue.

-We arrive this far, quit now? We still have time. Let’s go! – was the answer.

We move quickly that section, a little because we were on a hurry, a little because the surface was more stable. At about 13:20 we made contact with the tongue of the glacier and could see the end of the channel, the point where the moraine and the glacier melted, assessing that we could probably be at the minimal distance necessary to validate the hunt.

We had to dig snow stairs, avoid the ice and a big crack nearby, and try to stay away from the glacier by all means, but finally, at 13:50 we reached the furthest point that the channel allowed us and stood at 87 meters of the S12W76 with an accuracy of 7 meters.

After achieving these numbers, we tried to get closer by climbing the rocky mountain, but we did not have the appropriate climbing equipment (hardware and strings) to facilitate the descent of the moraine without accidents, so we didn’t attempted it “for now”.

But the hunting did not end up there. Similar to mountaineering, where summiting is not considered completed until returning to the basecamp, the confluence hunting did not end until 19:15 when we returned safely to our tent to cook and sleep.

We continued the trip next morning, completing another sector of the QhapaqÑan and walking 14 km until the village of Tanta, where we spent the night and return to Lima the day after, with the memory and the heart full of experiences, feelings, anecdotes and new expectations for the next adventure.